Our View: Are GOP's Brady, Plummer walking the talk?

Monday

May 31, 2010 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2010 at 1:54 PM

The two men heading up the Republican ticket for statewide office this fall, gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady and running mate Jason Plummer, have thus far talked a good game about the need for transparency and accountability among elected officials. They've argued that more needs to be done to address the shady ethics of Springfield. Both have emphasized the value of their business experience in fixing the state's budget problems.

The two men heading up the Republican ticket for statewide office this fall, gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady and running mate Jason Plummer, have thus far talked a good game about the need for transparency and accountability among elected officials. They've argued that more needs to be done to address the shady ethics of Springfield. Both have emphasized the value of their business experience in fixing the state's budget problems.

But how do both measure up on those scores?

Plummer, the 27-year-old from Edwardsville, has thus far refused requests to release his income tax returns, a subject that has become a political right of passage for serious candidates. Here Plummer says it would put his business interests at a "competitive disadvantage," in that it would involve releasing sensitive information about his family's company and its investors. Brady trotted out the same objections and then released the data anyway, under pressure to do so, if under overly controlled circumstances.

Look, Plummer is applying to be a heartbeat away from becoming the state's CEO. And it was the Brady/Plummer campaign crew, after all, that questioned whether Attorney General Lisa Madigan, now first in line of succession with no one occupying the lieutenant governor's seat, owed it to voters to release her tax data. She did, and her GOP opponent this fall is following suit. What's good for the goose ...

Beyond that, this is just a matter of Illinois voters deserving to know what they might be getting in Plummer. It should be no surprise to anyone who seeks high public office that it comes with some privacy sacrifices. Plummer has virtually no public record to judge. At 27, how much can he have to hide?

On another front, the Chicago Tribune has made an issue of three votes Brady took as state senator that would have made it easier for his real estate company to build a subdivision on land near an exit to Interstate 57 in Champaign that the state planned to reconstruct. Reportedly Brady later abandoned the development when it became more costly than he anticipated and he could not get more help from local taxpayers.

The explanations Brady and his campaign offer are varied. Initially he told the Tribune that, "If I felt I had a conflict, I wouldn't have done that." Later he indicated he wasn't aware the bills would have any impact on his property. A campaign spokeswoman then informed the suburban Daily Herald that Brady's actions reflected "normal business dealings," and that he always recused himself from voting in the case of conflicts. Yet it's clear the legislation was designed to benefit development in that specific area. Had a competitor been in a position to cast those votes and profit personally from them, would that have been OK, or would the Brady campaign be making political hay of it?

Meanwhile, Brady has missed quite a few other votes in his current job in the Legislature. In the two weeks before lawmakers' first attempt to adjourn in early May, records show that he skipped out on about half of the 400 bills that got up-or-down votes in his chamber. Granted, things move along at a good clip as legislators try to wind down a session and it can be easy to miss a vote here and there, but passing on 207 votes in two weeks? On one of those days, he blew off the guts of the session to speak to a park district conference and an insurance group. Gov. Pat Quinn has taken some time away from his Springfield day job, as well. This happens with candidates in every campaign, but taxpayers want some return on their current investment in these guys, too.

As always, voters will have the final say as to what's important. But the candidates shouldn't be at all surprised when those same folks ask them to square their rhetoric and their actions, and when the media shine a spotlight on them.

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